Hooligans

When last you heard from us, we were too exhausted to tell you about the end of our train ride from Budapest to Prague. When we left off, we were pleasantly chatting with Mikhail and Ludmila in our cute little train compartment. They disembarked at Brno to meet up with their tour. Since all the seats on the train were reserved, and we could see on our compartment door that no one was going to board until after Prague, we thought we'd have the last two and a half hours of our trip on our own.

But fate had other plans for us. Or should I say that football (what we call soccer) had other plans for us. As it turns out, Brno's pro team was playing Prague's team that very evening in Prague. And Brno's avid fans wanted to see the game. As we came to understand later,  Brno Armory is currently in second to last place in the league. Prague Sparta, on the other hand, leads the league. So one could assume that the the Brno fans are a little desperate. Not much suspense about how the game would go and all.

So, there we sat in our quiet little compartment, waving good-bye to our new friends and wondering why there were so many police on the platform. Police in riot gear.

Next thing we know, three women asked if the remaining seats in our compartment were available. We mimed to them that we understood that the seats were reserved. Oops! Those relatively tame young women moved on and three large guys replaced them in our field of view. Rather, they climbed over us, loaded with beer and what they later told us was vodka mixed with orange juice, while talking loudly in Czech and a smattering of German (they thought we were German).

For the next hour, they drank, sang, and talked louder than anyone I've ever heard. Accompanied by songs from their phones, they stood, cheered, saluted, waved and shouted their favorite lines. They never looked at us during this whole time -- never thought that they might be bursting our eardrums.

My favorite part was when Janic (we learned his name much later) stood up and dropped his pants so his buddies could see the tattoo on his thigh. Seriously. In a small compartment with me and a bunch of boys.

Finally the sheer amount of alcohol forced two of them to head to the bathroom. In the resulting silence, I decided to ask the third where they were going. Puti spoke some English and told us about the football match. When his two buddies got back,  he introduced us. Janic (the real party boy) and George enthusiastically started trying to win us over as Brno supporters.

Now we were part of the party. I went to the bathroom, and when I got back, they had bought beer all around. And they kept buying beer. They made sure we had beer made in Brno. And sometimes it took them a while because the riot police -- who had gotten on the train as well to keep these guys in line -- hassled them about buying more beer. And they kept  talking really loudly. But now at/to us.

When we pulled into the Prague station, they were quickly gone. They had to get to the game. As did the riot police. But our boys were nice enough to help us pull our suitcases down before they ran off.

Oddly enough, we left the train to find the platform pretty empty. The person from our apartment hotel was late to pick us up. The quiet felt eerie after all the chaos.

The driver did come and we had all kinds of challenges getting checked in. These apartment hotels want payment up front, in local currency. Of course we had no koronas. The driver took us to an ATM, but the ATM would not let us withdraw the complete amount we would owe for the next five days all in one withdrawal. So we had to go back and forth and drive all over the place to sort out how to pay. In the end, they were great. But between the hooligans and the payment issues, the start to our time in Prague was unsettling.

By the time we got moved into our apartment, it was about 6pm and we hadn't eaten a real meal all day. The driver suggested we go to the beer hall on the first floor. (Pilsener Urquell -- the original pilsener is made about an hour from here -- and it is served in restaurants everywhere.) We had a great Czech meal there (lots of meat, potatoes and dumplings) and a really good piece of apple strudel. And some great banter with the waiter. We told him we had arrived with Brno hooligans and he pointed out that the game was on TV and that Brno was losing badly. He seemed to have some glee in pointing out this fact.

I haven't caught up since we got here. I'm still two days behind in blogging. Just know that Prague is stunning. Around every corner is another view that blows me away. It is much more jaded by tourism than Budapest, however. So we are still getting our bearings about how to be savvy travelers here.

[slideshow]More soon!